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It has been 11 months since my family moved to the urban core of Tulsa, Oklahoma to plant Mercyview. Within our first few months here, God graciously brought a humble band of urban missionaries around the mission and vision of Mercyview. Since that time, we have sought to plant the Gospel deeply in our lives, praying that out of this, God would graciously plant His church in the center city of Tulsa. And I’m humbled to say that He has!

But what is the church? Is it an institution? It is a building? Is it a worship service? Well, when I say God has planted His church here, I mean that He has planted His people in a particular time and place to cultivate the knowledge of the rule of His Kingship. George Ladd says, “…there can be no objection to the recognition that the church is the organ of the Kingdom as it works in the world.” God is building His church, His redemptive Kingdom agents on mission, here in the urban core of Tulsa and we are stoked!

The church began with the deep belief that Gospel transformation typically happens best in smaller groupings of people. We have experienced this firsthand in our time here with our missional community. Our missional communities are inter-generational, small groups that meet weekly in homes, sharing meals, prayer, the Scripture, and our lives with another, as well as participating in missional endeavors.

At the turn of the new year, I felt that God was moving us to provide another environment for individuals to experience the Gospel, community, and mission at Mercyview through a gathered worship experience.

We began to talk about this as a community and I was blown away at how God was already moving in the hearts of those that were a part of this to move in that direction. We made plans to launch a worship gathering on Easter Sunday, knowing that God was going to have to provide a space, sound equipment, kid’s items, etc. We stepped out in faith and asked the Lord to meet us at the point of our need.

Well, this past week, we celebrated the launch of Mercyview’s first worship gathering on Easter Sunday!

God graciously provided a space that seats around 125 people, has rooms for children’s ministry, an abundance of parking (which is a precious commodity in Midtown Tulsa), and room to grow at Tulsa Adventist Academy, in the neighborhood just to the east of the University of Tulsa called Turner Park. We had churches, organizations, and individuals donate special financial gifts, sound equipment, kid’s items, and Bibles to help us with our launch. And I am so proud of our team – they did an amazing job in pulling this together in a short amount of time!

Now, we haven’t arrived. The goal has never been to launch a worship gathering. Our goal will always be to find our identity in Jesus and to live in the freedom that His grace and mercy bought for us. This will happen in our gathering. But it will also happen in our scattering. It will happen in the neighborhoods we live in, the businesses we work in, and the places we play. God willing, He will continue to build a people who will make Him famous in Tulsa and beyond.

Here are some pictures from our special day:




eucharist

In prepping for the class I teach each fall here at MBU called Worship History and Leadership, I’m reminded of why I love where we begin: a theology of worship. And what is at the core of that worship theology? I believe it is this:

“Worship is a dramatic enactment of the relationship that we have with God, a relationship that stems from historical events. Enactment may be done by means of recitation (creeds, hymns, and preaching) and drama (ritual) (that) have their basis in the Old Testament and New Testament, particularly in the Passover and Eucharist. In worship, we enact or act out the Gospel.”

-Robert Webber

For more on this, read Chapters 6-8 of Webber’s Worship Old and New. Also, an excellent theology of worship can be found from D.A. Carson in Chapter 1 of the book he edited, Worship By the Book, entitled “Worship Under the Word.” Portions of Carson’s chapter are available here at Google books.


I had the awesome privilege to baptize my daughter Margo this past Sunday @ Versailles Christian Church in Versailles, MO – the church my wife grew up in. Praise God!

Here are some pics from the baptism:

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And as a part of this beautiful sacrament, we all prayed this together to thank God for his work in our lives…

Prayer of Thanksgiving

In the beginning, O God, your Spirit moved over the water, and you created all that is, seen and unseen.
We give you thanks for the gift of water that sustains all life.

In the time of Noah, you destroyed evil in the water of the flood; and by your saving ark, you gave a new beginning.
We give you thanks for new beginnings.

You led Israel through the sea, out of slavery into the freedom of the promised land.
We give you thanks for the gift of freedom and the gift of the land.

In the water of the Jordan our Lord was baptized by John and anointed by your Spirit; by the baptism of his death and resurrection, Christ set us free from sin and death and opened the way to eternal life.
We give you thanks for our own baptism and the gift of eternal life.

The Lamb has come to lead us to springs of living water.
We give you thanks for the river of the water of life, bright as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb.


margo-xmas

Parents often forget that their most important mission field is the home. Living missionally as parents means that God’s goodness should infect our homes as we humbly live out the power of the Gospel in our own lives. And as this happens, we pray God will woo our children to his saving grace.

I am so excited to share that last night, I had the privilege to lead my daughter Margo in a prayer of faith and trust in God’s grace for her salvation. What an unbelievable opportunity! Since Cooper trusted in Christ back in January 2008, Margo has been asking a lot of questions. There have been many moments over the last year of her life where I thought I saw the “lightbulb” come on for her, only to be convinced that she needed some more time.

Last night, we were reading the story of Jesus and the children from Matthew 19 from The Jesus Storybook Bible by Sally Lloyd-Jones (an amazing Gospel-centered children’s Bible) and I could tell that something clicked in Margo’s spirit. She got it. The part of the story that she resonated with said this:

…no matter how clever you are, or how good you are, or how rich you are, or how nice you are, or how important you are – none of it makes any difference. Because God’s love is a gift and, as anyone will tell you, the whole thing about a gift is, it’s free. All you have to do is reach out your hand and take it.

…You see, children loved Jesus, and they knew they didn’t need to do anything special for Jesus to love them. All they needed to do was to run into his arms…

After I read this, Cooper said, “That’s what I did, Dad,” and Margo said, “That’s all I have to do, Dad?” I told her yes. It knew it was time. It had all been leading to this moment. We went upstairs and we talked for a bit and prayed together. Wow…

What is beautiful about this is that Cooper was drawn to the saving knowledge of Christ through the Word by the same Bible almost a year and a half ago. God’s word is alive!

She is so excited to get baptized, especially to show her grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins about her decision, but she is almost more excited to take communion as a family. At The Journey, we come forward to take communion and Holly, Cooper, and I have been doing this together for the past year and a half. Margo has been joining us as we go forward but not partaking. She has been asking more questions lately about what the elements represent.

I think this has been another big part of her journey to Christ. It reflects what can happen when, as an ordinary family, as Tim Chester and Steve Timmis say, you do ordinary things with Gospel intentionality. Just having Margo around the sacraments made an impact on her. It drew her into wanting to be a part of God’s family.

I thank the Lord for the professions of faith of Cooper and Margo and continue to pray for my two youngest, Sloan and Everett. As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord…

For further reading, the following post was written in January 2008 and captures my heart on bringing the Gospel to your children, highlighting what is most important and exposing some misconceptions. I would encourage you to read: Bringing the Gospel to your Children: What I’ve Learned So Far


create

It’s two days late but here was my Day 2 at cre:ate:

Morning W\worship with a genuine, humble dude named Carl Cartee. He has a new album coming out in March. Check it out. He is the real deal. Reminds me of a young Paul Baloche with more grovel…

Profound session with Ian Morgan Cron, author of Chasing Francis, on the mystic-artist. Can’t begin to say how cool it was to hear from Ian’s heart. My big takeaway was something he didn’t even talk about per se, but modeled: God has made us a certain way so we must find our voice – and that voice won’t be like anyone else’s. Ian is an artist at heart even though he is a pastor, author, blogger, etc. His presentation was heady, artsy, rich, serious, clever, humorous. I’m an artist through and through too. He gave me permission to be an “artsy” communicator…

After Ian’s session, we had the first of many surprises of the week. I thought I had seen this guy at the conference but wasn’t sure. Randy brought up Matthew Ward, formerly of 2nd Chapter of Acts, and Billy Ray Hearn, EMI Christian Music Group founder, who discovered 2nd Chapter before there was such a thing as CCM. They reminisced on their relationship and Matthew closed the time by singing “The Lord’s Prayer.” It was truly an anointed time. Matthew is one of my all time favorite singers…

Lunch was at the Boxwood Bistro here at the Factory. Jasmine salmon with white rice as a main entree. Yummy. Met and sat with uber-blogger and great guy, Carlos Whitaker and his wife, Heather. Also, had the priveledge to have lunch with Ian. Asked Ian alot of questions about his pastoring role in southern Connecticut. He started a church that has grown to 700 folks and he feels that his time to be the “lead” guy may have come to an end and hand it over to someone else. He shared his frustration of the slow shift from mission to maintenance. Also shared a vision he has for what he calls the “atomized” church. If I remember, I’ll try to unpack this later for you. In all, another providential time to connect with an anointed man who spoke truth into my life. [There was also a surprise visit by Stu G, the electric guitarist from Delirious?. Fun stuff...]

After lunch, we had our second surprise of the day. Billy and Cindy Foote, writers of songs like “You Are My King (Amazing Love)” and “Sing to the King,” led us in a mini-worship session. What a sweet time of worship! God manifested Himself in a powerful way…

Afternoon session with Steve Guthrie, assistant professor of theology @ Belmont University. The highlight was his “exegesis” of book 10, chapter 32 of Augustine’s Confessions. Awesome stuff…

Supper was at Harpeth Community Church here in Franklin. Great food and even better music. I got my nostalgia on. Michael W. Smith led us in an intimate time of worship. Just Smitty and a piano. Check out his song “Highly Favoured” on the new album, CompassionArt…

Tomorrow I hope to recap day 3 & 4 for you…


redeeming the liturgy intro

Liturgy.

What does that word conjure when you hear it? Dead ritualism? Lifeless forms of worship? The Catholic church?

For me, growing up in a church with a more revivalist tradition – hymns; choral music by a choir, soloist, or both; the reading of Scripture; the collection of offerings; a sermon; an invitation to respond to the sermon – liturgy was the weird thing that my mainline friends did across town. Not until recently have I begun to see liturgy in a different light.

Over the next week, I am going to do a three-part series on “redeeming” the liturgy. I think you will find that the idea of liturgy in the context of corporate worship could be a good thing for our souls on many levels. Here is how the series will break down:

Part 1: The Canterbury Trail
My journey towards being “liturgy-friendly

Part 2: A Liturgical Sojourn
A brief overview of liturgy in church history

Part 3: Attention to Redemption
A look at the how my church, The Journey, is “redeeming” the liturgy

Stay tuned…

[Photo by dheinen]


cooper’s baptism in pictures

My son Cooper, following in obedience to His Lord’s command to be baptized this past Sunday night at The Journey – Hanley Rd….

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We are so proud of you Coop!


The Sacraments: Constancy or Constantly? – Intro

The Sacraments: Constancy or Constantly? – Part 1

If you’ve been following this series, we are talking communion. I am focusing in on a specific aspect of communion: its frequency. How often should we observe this sacrament? Does the Bible prescribe a model or pattern?

In Part 1, we saw what sparked my letter to the Worship Leader forum from Ken Guidan. Today, you see my comments to that ‘spark.’ Here are my comments that were printed about a year ago in the March/April 2006 edition of Worship Leader magazine:

Communion Concern
In response to Ken Guidan of Palo Alto Church of Christ in the November/December 2005 “Worship Leader Forum,” he asks, “Why are we backing away from weekly communion during our worship services?”

Scripture clearly asserts that communion is one of the church’s ultimate duties. And in giving this sacrament prime importance, Scripture gives us an indication that it should be done recurrently. We must never lose the wonder and mystery of this ritual in a day of short sermons and pop religion [or humorous worship, as Ken says.]

But with any issue related to Christian practice in the context of corporate worship, we must let Scripture inform our traditions and not vice versa.

In short, the Bible does not dictate how often the Lord’s Supper should be observed; it just says is should be. My belief is that when the Bible does not mandate the frequency of a specific practice, there is freedom for the local church to determine its regularity.

I share Ken’s passion for communion, especially his concern with those who do not regularly observe it. I believe it should be a recurring part of corporate worship. But when he asks, “Why do so many of our churches celebrate communion less than weekly?” I hear “Why don’t all churches agree with our belief that communion should be observed weekly and no less?”

Communion is an essential in Christian worship, but its frequency is a non-essential issue. For me, I am more concerned that the Church embraces communion’s meaning and importance whenever it is observed, not how often its observed.

Later this week, we will look at the flurry of comments that found their way to future Worship Leader forums over the next few months related to this conversation. The mere quantity of interest in this issue showed me that communion is something we need to be talking about as worship pastors, local churches, and Christians as a whole…

At the end of this series, I’ll talk about why I responded the way I did. And you might even be surprised on my take of the issue at hand: frequency.


At the end of May ’07 on this blog, I wrote:

In the 2005 November/December edition of Worship Leader magazine, Ken Guidan, Worship Coordinator for Palo Alto Church of Christ in Palo Alto, California, wrote an interesting aside about Communion in the Worship Leader forum – a place for people to sound off about all things worship. For some reason it hit a nerve. And I responded. And Worship Leader printed my response. And then a flurry of responses came in. And they were printed as well. And to boot, Ken and I began further discussion offline.

Over the next weeks, I would like to unpack this for the relevintage readers. Some of this may not be revolutionary stuff, but it is interesting to observe real-life conversation about such an important thing for the church and church leadership, including worship pastors/leaders.

That brings us to part 1 of this series. To kick off this series, I am going to reprint Ken Guidan’s comments to set the groundwork for where we will be heading over the next few weeks. Here’s Ken:

Including Communion
I am wondering why we are backing away from weekly communion during our worship services? I have visited several worship services in several churches, and the praise team is exciting and encouraging, the songs uplifting and the message inspiring [and often humorous]. But Jesus said, “This is my body given for you; do this in remembrance of me” [Luke 22:19]. And in the Worship Leader Profiles, I cannot remember a time where the sample worship set included communion.

Although usually a solemn time during any worship service, this should be the pinnacle event of our worship. It is Jesus’ death and resurrection that gives us hope; it is why we are here.

It doesn’t make sense that we should skip it, or only do it once a month or twice a year. Why do so many of our churches celebrate communion less than weekly?

My response to Ken’s statements coming later this week…


“This is the body
This is the blood
Broken and poured out
For all of us
And in this communion
We share in His love
This is the body
This is the blood”

-from “Communion” by Third Day

For Christians worldwide, the ordinance of the Lord’s Supper is the rite that Jesus gave Christians to do in his memory, reported in 1 Corinthians 11:24-25. It is a sacramental or memorial reenactment of what he did at his Last Supper in giving his disciples bread, saying “This is my body,” and the cup, saying “This is my blood.”

The ordinance of the Lord’s Supper is one of the most important things we do as a church. It is a theological masterpiece – a renactment of the Gospel – memorials of Jesus’ death on the cross. It encompasses both reverence and joy as we both examine our lives [1 Cor. 11:27-32] and remember Jesus is coming back for us. Jesus told us to ‘do this in remembrance of me until I come again.’ Not only do we remember what happened in the past but we look forward to what He is planning to do for His bride, the Church.

As a worship leader, I have the privilege of planning our monthly communion service. It is always a highlight of my church’s monthly calendar. And the mystery of Communion uniting me to Christ and to one another is something that seeps deep into my soul every time I observe it.

But as most things in the church, there is debate on surrounding issues. Much of the debate with communion centers around the idea of transubstantiation. Do the bread and wine literally become the body and blood of Jesus Christ? We’ll save that for another time….

I want to focus in on another aspect of communion: its frequency. How often should we observe this sacrament? Does the Bible prescribe a model or pattern?

In the 2005 November/December edition of Worship Leader Magazine, Ken Guidan, Worship Coordinator for Palo Alto Church of Christ in Palo Alto, California, wrote an interesting aside in the Worship Leader Forum – a place for people to sound off about all things worship. For some reason it hit a nerve. And I responded. And Worship Leader printed my response. And then a flurry of responses came in. And they were printed as well. And Ken and I began further discussion offline.

Over the next weeks, I would like to unpack this for the relevintage readers. Some of this may not be revolutionary stuff, but it is interesting to observe real-life conversation about such an important thing for the church and church leadership, including worship pastors/leaders.

[I haven't forgotten my series on the worship wars. Stay tuned for the continuation of that series...]


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